My husband's father wrote this account of his time at the
CCC camp. His name was Gaylord Clinton Jolly, Jr. At the time of his enlistment
he lived in Lansing, Ingham, Michigan. Gaylord died in 2002 and was a resident
of Callaway, Minnesota. Here is his story:

"In 1934, I joined the CCC and was sent to Camp Luzerne,
north of West Branch, Michigan where I was paid $5.00 a month and $25.00
was sent home to Dad and Mother. I will never forget the stop over at Camp
Custer. We got off the train and it was raining and cold and we were standing
in water. I had low worn out dress shoes on, holes in the soles and the water
was running in one side and out the other. We stood in the mess line in the
rain for about a half hour. We came out of the mess hall with a full belly
and was handed a barracks bag. It is now dark and we stand in line and they
passed out clothes, shoes, overcoats, and shirts. We went from tent to tent
collecting and filling the barracks bag with clothes, on top of all of this
they topped it off with Army blankets and showed us to a tent where we were
to sleep for the night on an Army cot. I changed clothes in the dark and
put everything on I could wear - dry socks, pants and shirts and the overcoat,
made up my bunk and went to sleep and froze all night. When I arrived in
camp I weighed 118 pounds and at the Rec. Hall they were having boxing training
bouts so I had to show them how tough I was. So I got into the ring with
another fly-weight. I was noticed by an ex-professional that had tired of
fighting tank bouts and starving to death so he joined the corp to get something
to eat. It was decided I should be on the camp boxing team as a novice and
my first fight would be on Saturday night. I was scared to death. Well I
won and got a silver glove and $3.00 and thought I was headed for the big
time. Now at home we got one small piece of pork steak or hamburger or a
hot dog for dinner. In the CCC we got three pork chops, three or four hot
dogs and a pile of beef roast that would feed all us kids at home. All the
pancakes, sausage, ham and bacon you could eat. Well eat I did and filled
out that size 14 1/2 shirt. Soon weighed 126 pounds and had to move up to
feather weight on the boxing team. Having a love for sports I made the baseball
team and played center field, at bat, I was the lead-off man. We traveled
all around the north playing baseball on Saturdays and Sundays riding in
the back end of an Army truck. For uniforms we had baseball pants, sweat
shirts and a cap, we looked like the "dead end kids." I was liked by the
Forest Rangers and learned much about forestry, how to run a stake line from
one section marker to another. I didn't always hit the section marker but
came close and learned how to correct the mistake. I learned how to use all
the surveying instruments. Clyde Soper, a Forester, had charge of all the
surveying and we made maps of all the lakes and proposed camp grounds in
the Huron National Forest. The crew was Stewart Hultz, Bob Haskel and myself
and now and then another helper. I worked in the fire tower a number of periods
and one fall Duke Helmbolt and I had charge of the Old Baldy fire tower.
Old Baldy tower was near South Branch and Mac Lake. I had saved up over $400.00
from my time at the CCC camp and came back home to the farm which was located
east of Okemos, Michigan on March 17, 1936."

----- jolhaun83 AT comcast.net

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